In chronological order:
-Crisis on Infinite Earths occurred over twenty years ago, and is actually not that necessary to read if you're just now getting into DC. I'm a huge DC fan and to date I've never read even half of it.
-There are a lot of things that happened throughout the DC Universe between the single issue of Countdown to Infinite Crisis and Infinite Crisis itself. Like, half a year's worth of stories that are collected in four separate miniseries. In order of relevance to Infinite Crisis, these are: 1)"The OMAC Project," 2)"Villains United," 3)"Day of Vengeance, and 4)"Rann/Thanagar War." All of these miniseries will play some part in the events of Infinite Crisis, but out of all four, only The OMAC Project is absolutely necessary to get a feel for what's going on as Infinite Crisis starts. In fact, Countdown to Infinite Crisis is only collected in the OMAC Project TPB, so if you want CtIC, you sort of have to get the OMAC Project.
In fact pt 2, The OMAC Project was so tied to the events of Infinite Crisis that not all of the OMAC Project story was told in the OMAC Project miniseries. There is a separate story, called "Superman: Sacrifice," that takes place in the middle of the OMAC Project miniseries that is pivotal to knowing the full OMAC Project story. That being said, the OMAC Project TPB contains the final chapter of "Sacrifice" so you'll know what happened in Sacrifice even if you don't get the entire separate TPB.
Confusing? Yeah, you're not alone. Infinite Crisis was DC's single biggest crossover event, ever, and contains months upon years of continuity porn across basically every single title it was printing at the time. It was incredibly rewarding for a hardcore DC reader, but not really very newb-friendly.
Moving on...
-52 is very, very good -- one of the best series to have come out of DC -- and borderline necessary. It occurs immediately after Infinite Crisis and pays off a lot of the plot threads from IC. I definitely recommend this whether you're interested in the Crises or not.
-I definitely do not recommend Countdown to Final Crisis, and I doubt you'll ever hear anyone disagree with that lack of recommendation. Do not get Countdown to Final Crisis. It is s***. It is one of the worst series ever written. Furthermore, it ends up having virtually nothing to do with Final Crisis and will in fact end up confusing you even more about Final Crisis than if you've never read Countdown at all.
-That being said, Final Crisis is incredibly confusing anyway. It bills itself as the third part of the Crisis trilogies, but in reality it has much less to do with the other two Crises and is mostly Grant Morrison going gloriously insane in his basement.
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